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Thursday, 20 November 2014

Stocking Fillers for Quilters!

There are lots of suggestions in blog land for crafty Christmas presents that you can make to give as gifts. Anna, Fiona and I thought it would be fun to put together a post with items you might like to receive. If you have family members or friends that are wondering what to get a Quilter for Christmas, or even ideas for things you might like to buy for your quilting best bud, how about some of these?

First up Fabric - can't go wrong with gifting a quilter some quilt shop cotton prints!

Charm packs (5" squares, 2 packs will make a baby quilt), a selection of
fat eights and fat quarters, will always be welcome and will earn you a
cup of tea and a biscuit if you drop by. If you are feeling really generous and drop by with a fat quarter
bundle of a quilters favourite designer, you will definitely be
staying for Christmas dinner too! (I was gifted this FQB of Kate Spain
fabric last Christmas and am still hoarding it - just keeping the one
bundle, everything else has been busted open to use!)

Quilters, for some reason, seem to amass quite a bit of bits and bobs and need somewhere to put them. I got these jars in Homestore & More last year and have seen similar in Ikea. They are perfect for thread and I keep Jelly rolls (2.5" strips) in them, not the most practical when you want the jelly roll in the bottom but they look pretty!

You may have seen the Gorjuss fabric panels at the Knitting &
Stitching show. Well they do the cutest tins too - perfect for storing
kneedles, pins and buttons.

Check out these beautiful pins and scissors on Pincushion Crazy's Etsy shop. Imagine opening a Gorjuss tin with a packet of these lovelies hidden inside.

Cafe Press and companies like them will print images onto mugs,
coasters, T-Shirts, mouse mats etc. If you sign up for their newsletter
you will get discount offers.

Image from Cafe Press

If they had one of these mugs with a
Jack Russell on it I might be tempted!

Image from Cottonpatch.co.uk

Something else to decorate your craft room could be this hanger from the Cotton Patch. They also have a version to hold thread and some really lovely quilt hangers too!

Like fabric, you can't go too far wrong with books. If you are buying for an art quilter these two are worth a look. Paper and Metal Leaf Lamination describes transferring images to fabric and you could also gift someone some inkjet fabric sheets too. I'm not a big fan of compendium books but this Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting has tons of information on all sorts of techniques.

For the hand quilter I really like this embroidery book Doodle Stitching. It has small and pretty motifs and soon you will be doodling your own designs and stitching them out. The Farmers Wife, though a traditional sampler of 6" blocks hand stitched, has been doing the rounds. Even though this is a traditional book, these blocks made in modern fabrics are really gorgeous themselves. (Check out these lovely blocks by Sewgiving and you will see what I mean!)

If practical is more you're thing, (I have 2 friends who love practical gifts - they always buy brilliantly for each other!), how about some items to make your sewing life easier?

Image from Quilt in a Day

This isn't for clobbering someone if they try and take away your fabric, this is a wooden iron for pressing seams without having to use a steam iron. A rotating cutting mat is on my list and if you know someone who travels to sew, a cutting mat/ironing board combo like this one could come in handy. Speciality rulers like these Jaybird rulers and Bloc Loc Rulers reviewed by Swim Bike Quilt would make great stocking fillers.

Not sure you can get this into a Christmas stocking but I had to show you my Ikea kitchen trolley. Those that were at the Galway retreat will remember I was mildly obsessed with getting one of these. It was a birthday present! I love it to bits and it holds a ton of stuff.

And while you are in Ikea you might as well pick up a bolt of Ikea Britten Nummer - makes great backing fabric!

The Pink carry organiser was found in the cards craft section of Hobby Lobby in USA last year - another great buy. It's worth checking our the card making area of Craft shops to find cool storage ideas!

Anna is looking for an Oliso iron, the lifty ones! They rise up and down automatically and prevent your fabric from burning. Not sure about the voltage working in these parts but you may get a good deal next week if you are in the US for Thanksgiving sales.

Finally, if computers is your thing you could gift someone a Craftsy class. I love Camille Roskelly's classes for quick modern quilts and Elizabeth Dackson and Ann Peterson's classes for Free Motion Quilting. If you are feeling incredibly generous and know a quilter who is into designing their own quilts there is Electric Quilt software which now runs on Mac and PC.

What do you think? Any of these grab you? If you have any suggestions please let us know and feel free to print this out and give to your nearest and dearest, marked up, circled in red and you never know what you will find under the tree!